1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image transmitting and receiving apparatus, which operates on an IP network. Also, the present invention relates to an image transmitting and receiving method on an IP network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a TCP/IP network, there is a necessity to assign an IP address per client in order to allow control for transmitting and receiving data packet between clients. An means for performing this IP address assignment automatically, there is a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). A server for a DHCP assigns an IP address in response to a request from the client. Generally, the client transmits a request message when the client's apparatus is turned on, and the server that has received this request assigns a vacant IP address to the client. For this reason, the IP address for the client differs every time when the client's apparatus is started.
While there is conventionally proposed an Internet facsimile apparatus (hereinafter referred to as IFAX) as disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 8-242326 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,233.
In the IFAX, at the time of transmission, a scanner scans each page of an original, and obtains a plurality of image data corresponding to each page. Then, the IFAX transmits e-mail to which the obtained image data is appended to an IFAX on a receiver side. The IFAX on the receiver side prints image data appended to the received e-mail by use of a printer. As one of the uses of this IFAX, there is a network scanner. The network scanner aims to transfer image data obtained by scanning the original to the PC, etc., process it by such PC, and store it thereby.
In the case of using the IFAX as a network scanner, similar to the image communications performed by the aforementioned Internet facsimile apparatus, the IFAX appends a plurality of image data obtained by scanning the original to e-mail, and transmits this e-mail to a specific mail address. An operator accesses a mail server that manages this mail address by use of the PC, which deals with image data, and receives this e-mail.
However, there is a possibility that delay of mail delivery with the mail server will occur when image data is transmitted to the PC via the mail server. Moreover, similar to the case in which e-mail is generally received, since the operator must activate a mailer on PC and obtain access to the mail server, complicated operations are required of the user.
In order to solve such a disadvantage, it can be considered a case in which image data is directly transmitted to the PC using an SMTP instead of transmission via the mail server. In the case of using the SMTP, it is necessary for the IFAX to know the IP address for the PC in order to transfer e-mail to an scanned image-receiving application, which operates on the PC. In the network in which no DHCP server is introduced, since the IP address for the PC is unchanged until the IP address is changed by a network manager, the IP address may be stored in IFAX one time. However, in the network in which the DHCP server is introduced, the IP address is changed every time when the PC is started as mentioned above. For this reason, IFAX can neither specify the IP address for a destination nor directly transmit image data to the PC.